Posts from — November 2007

The editorial in the December, 2007 issue of Clean Run brings up the subject of the amount of drive that is necessary in a performance dog.

The writer (Lori Westling) writes: “I have also noticed that there are dogs that are so wild that they cannot control themselves under any exciting circumstance. Is this drive? What happened to biddability? If a dog is so wild (some would say driven) that he cannot think in the ring (in any venue), as well as around the ring, how will he ever succeed? How can he ever do the job he was bred to do? I think it is important for a dog to be thoughtful and have common sense, even when in drive. I look at this as being naturally balanced or having an inner steadiness. Many dogs are born with this trait. I do not think it can be trained.” The author further states, “I now see many ‘performance litters’ being bred. I think this is a good thing a long as the original purpose of the breed and the breed standard are kept in mind. But sometimes it seems as if we are breeding the common sense and innate abilities right out of some breeds because we are focusing solely on breeding a dog with speed and drive to another dog with speed and drive.”

That is what I love about Gel, that inner steadiness. It seems he’s passed that on to his puppies, which is wonderful. Midge is the same way, but to a lesser extent, I have seen her loose her mind when in drive. This could be attributed to her maturity. Gel has changed a lot from the six and a half month old puppy I brought home.

I think a lot of the crazy wildness (and fear and obsessiveness) seen so commonly in dogs today is related to the amount of vaccinations they (and their parents) have received. I also expect the high carbohydrate content (and preservatives) in most dry dog foods is contributing to mental instability.

During lunch today, I caught up with The Working Dog Diary written by Kay Spencer who is a proponent of the working bred Australian Shepherd. She mentions in one entry that she was offered a Border Collie, a granddaughter of Alasdair MacRae’s Ben. The dog was afraid of Kay, and of the world in general, but when put with sheep she forgot everything else. That’s another thing I see in many working-bred Border Collies. Sure, on stock they are fabulous, but off stock, they are neurotic nuts. Are those people who are breeding Border Collies to work stock breeding simply based on their ability to work stock, or are they looking at the whole picture? I suppose it’s easy to put up with a neurotic dog if you can train it and then put it up in a kennel where you do not have to interact with it. Border Collies have the ability to transform into stable working dogs when presented with stock. It’s as if the presence of the stock is enough to suppress their underlying mental instability.

Last night I thought to myself, where would I be now if Midge did not get pregnant. The weekend she got bred, a woman who was running a Patrick Shannahan clinic in Georgia had come up for a trial and stayed with me. I was stressed to the max after discovered Gel and Midge tied and this woman’s comment that she didn’t see anything wrong with the Whiterose Kep puppy that I placed with Wally and that she saw temperament issues in Midge did not go over well. As it turned out, I didn’t go to the Patrick Shannahan clinic (wasted almost $300) and that was about it for herding for me.

I was reading in an old diary this morning and the frustration I was experiencing with herding was more than evident. I truly think Midge and Gel did me a favor by producing this litter of puppies. Yes, they were a source of stress and frustration, but everything that I did for them paid off in the end.

Even though I have a long way to go with agility, the frustration factor simply isn’t there. I know I can get help with whatever training issues I have. Yes, I get upset at myself if I handle Gel in a poor manner, but I am confident I will get better in time; Gel is only going to get better in time. I do not know that I’d ever make a USBCHA-level handler.

Fern is a source of never-ending delight. She’s so funny. She learns via osmosis. I’m blessed to have her. Thank you Gel and Midge.

After a lot of consideration, I have decided to offer Midge for sale to someone who is active in USBCHA-style herding. That’s what I bought her for. The accidential breeding pushed me back into agility and now that I’m there, I realize it is a much better fit for me. While Midge would make a fine agility dog, it’s stock work that she is more suited for.

Gel is well on his way to becoming an awesome agility dog. I’ll still do some herding competition with him, but not in USBCHA. In order to compete at the USBCHA level, you need access to a good trainer. I have to drive three hours one way to get to a good trainer. I simply cannot do that. I can get to three different agility instructors in an hour and a half or less. It’s much less wear and tear on all concerned. If I wasn’t driving an hour each way to and from work, I might be more willing to travel on the weekend. My commute to work isn’t going to change.

I want Midge to be doing something that she is comfortable with, which is stock work. We’ll see what comes of it. I am not going to sell her to just anyone. She may end up staying with me which is fine too.

Three of the five puppies have now turned on to stock. That’s a good thing. What will come of it, remains to be seen.

What a rush! I had so much fun at my first USDAA trial. Gel had a ball as well. We ran five times on Saturday. The first class was Gamblers and we qualified. The second class was Standard and we qualified. The third was Jumpers and I screwed up (as usual, I think I have a phobia about Jumpers courses and go in ready to screw up). In Pairs, Gel’s run was flawless and fast. I told my partner that Gel would be coming in to the baton exchange area like a freight train and to have her dog focused and ready to leave. I handed her the baton and she left with her dog, who promptly ran through the first jump, knocked several more jumps and the last time I looked at her, he wouldn’t go up the A-frame. Oh well, better luck next time. Gel and I worked on weaves all last week and our hard work paid off as he was hitting his entries and weaving with speed.

The topper on Saturday was the Steeplechase run. Steeplechase is a tournament event instituted by USDAA in 1997. According to USDAA, this tournament event was developed to demonstrate the competitor’s ability to work with speed as they feature their skills in training and performance of a special jumpers course. In addition to numerous jumps and hurdles on course, the A-frame and weave poles are included as a special demonstration of the two most dynamic obstacles in the dog agility, for which difficulty of performance increases with speed. The tournament’s “time plus faults” scoring method accentuates the importance of speed combined with accuracy in performance.

Here is the course we ran.

The cool thing about Steeplechase is that any dog can run in it, no matter if they are running at the Starters (Novice) or Master (highest) level of competition. So Gel and I were running with the “big” dogs. Gel and I ran the course clean and only bobbled once between obstacles 3 and 4, he tried to go on the A-frame rather than in the tunnel so we lost precious seconds there. Even though he came out of the tunnel at speed, he still nailed his weave pole entrance. We were just two seconds off from qualifying! For our first USDAA trial, I think that’s pretty darned good. Even though we did not qualify, we were able to run again on Sunday. I came off that course so pumped I could have run it again. I can’t wait until the trial this weekend which is USDAA as well.

Sunday’s run was more difficult and we didn’t do so well, but that’s okay. As one of my instructors, Meagan says, it’s only a girl and her dog running circles in the dirt. I get so serious about my runs, I need to lighten up. I want to be perfect, and it is me that screws our runs up, not Gel.

On Sunday we qualified in Standard (again) and Snooker (by the skin of my teeth). Jumpers was a bomb again. As we were running I met the judge’s eyes and almost stopped there and said to her, this dog is so damned honest it isn’t funny. Even though I was handling him terribly, Gel cleared every jump. Out of nine total runs that weekend, he only knocked one bar which was in Saturday’s Jumpers run. We ran the Jumpers run clean, but we were three seconds over time so we didn’t qualify. In AKC we would have. I’ve been told before that AKC rewards slow dogs and I didn’t understand why until now.

I elected to stay overnight on Saturday and brought both Midge and Fern with me. Except for having her hackles up a few times and alarm barking very briefly twice, Fern did very well with all the new people and dogs. She enjoyed the attention she got from the exhibitors. Midge was her usual self, not at all bothered by the strange surroundings or dogs. That’s the beauty of my dogs, they are the same dogs no matter where they are. One exhibitor commented on my tugging with Gel prior to a run. She said she wouldn’t want to do that with her dog because it would get him too ramped up. I don’t know how much more ramped up I could get Gel prior to a run, he comes into the arena wired for sound. I told her I tugged with him because I enjoyed his excitement and fed off it myself. As soon as I set him up for his start line stay, he’s clear and focused on me. Gel has never broke a start line stay in competition or any where else. There was a time when Gel was extremely obstacle-focused and quite frequently made up his own courses, but those days are past. He does what I ask of him even if it’s dead wrong or really hard to do.

The dogs all seemed to enjoy the hotel room. Agh! It was awful having to take them out on leads for potty walks. I am so used to being able to go out with them off-lead. I couldn’t imagine living in an area where I had to walk my dogs on leash. We’ll be staying overnight for the trial this weekend too. After this weekend, we won’t do another trial until the end of January which is a good thing. They are expensive and exhausting, but so darned much fun I don’t know how I stand it!

There was a recent discussion on the Kensmuir stockdog list on increasing fat in a dog’s diet to enable the dog to withstand the colder temperatures. One poster indicated that she added fat from pasture-fed cattle (a good thing) or bacon fat (probably not so good). Not so sure why anyone would want to add more fat to commercial dry dog food. Just another example of: if the food was correct to begin with, there would be no need to add to it, mix formulas, or use one of the special formulas because of a particular medical concern.

Other people swear by a product made by Redpaw: Balanced Fat, which lists the following ingredients: Poultry Fat (preserved with natural mixed tocopherols, rosemary extract, and citric acid), Coconut Oil, Fish Oil, Corn Oil, Canola Oil, Dried Liver Digest. Yuck! The manufacturer recommends freezing the product in ice cube trays and then feeding the cubes to the dog. I figured prior to my next trial I’m going to order a gallon of this product, freeze many trays of it, load it into my cooler prior to the next trial and then dole out the ice cubes to my dogs to maintain their energy throughout the day. That way I’ll have a dual purpose product, it will keep my food cold and keep the dogs running fast.

I don’t know, it makes so much more sense to me to feed food that a dog is by nature designed to eat, but, according to a post in the above exchange, feeding too much protein leads to dogs having too much energy and driving them crazy. At least there is one poster there who clears up the confusion stating that protein builds and maintains muscle, it does not make dogs hyper. Fat provides sustained energy (endurance). Yea! A little bit of sensibility there.

What really got me though, was the post wherein the woman stated that she was looking for ways to increase fat and combat stamina issues without adding protein and without spending an arm and a leg. So, she added ground flax seed to her dry food and according to her, it’s working. Damn! She should get rid of her dogs and buy a parakeet.

Gel finished his Novice Standard title this weekend at the Monroe Kennel Club show in Concord, NC. He would have finished his Novice Jumpers title if I had not run him like an idiot on Saturday. This was the first time I had ever run in an indoor arena (first time for Gel too, but he didn’t care). Oh well, one more leg and he’ll have his Novice Jumpers title as well.

On Sunday we ran in Open Standard for the first time. Except for the weaves, which he wouldn’t complete (you only get two chances to complete the weave poles in Open), we ran the course well. Needless to say, we are doing lots and lots of weave pole training this week in preparation for the two upcoming trials.

“Standard” is the AKC class with the contact equipment: A-frame, dog walk and table, jumps, weaves, tunnel(s) and often a chute. “Jumpers” or “Jumpers with Weaves” is just that, a course with jumps, weave poles and sometimes a tunnel.

The past two trials we’ve run were AKC. The next two are USDAA. In USDAA there are 12 poles in the Started (Novice) level. Like AKC, you get to keep trying until you finish them, but depending upon how long it takes us to get through our retries, we may run out of time. In the Novice level of AKC, there are only six poles, which I think is a great disservice to the Novice dogs and handlers because when they get into the Open level, they usually have a hard time with the 12 weaves.

Weaves were the last thing I trained Gel on. I am certain he understands what he’s supposed to do, but I have not made the exercise rewarding enough nor worked him enough in weaves so that he’s solid in his weave performance.

Oh well, you live and learn. I am happy that we were able to handle the rest of the obstacles in the Open class with relative ease. Many people say that the Open courses are more difficult than the Excellent courses. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but I was glad to be able to run an Open course without feeling over my head. Except for the weaves, Gel is doing all I ask of him. he is a good dog.

Just got the photos I purchased of Gel at our first agility trial.

Went to agility class last night. There were only two of us (the woman with the Laekenois and me) so the class moved quickly and we got lots of training time in. The instructor set a primarily jumpers with weaves course, with lots of distractions and many, many sequences that required exact timing or the dog was off course. Needless to say, we were off course quite a few times.

I got tired quite quickly and because the weather was quite warm, Gel petered out towards the end of the class too. I have to get in better shape! I could be more tired this week because I’ve been working nine+ hour days lately.

I worked at home yesterday so the dogs some extra exercise in during the day. It was great, I’d review a title package, then get up and take a quick break, review another one and take a break. Wish I could work at home more often. Towards the end of the day, my landlord’s wife came over with her Great Dane “puppy” (it is a puppy, but it’s bigger than Gel now). She had the puppy on a leash so I brought Fern out to see her. Fern didn’t react to the rambunctious puppy that was trying to stomp her (in play of course), she just kept a safe distance away. Good girl!

Fern has responded very well to the restrictions I’ve put on her. She’s much more interested in interacting with me and easily calls off the cats or other dogs. I have the delightful puppy I fell in love with back!

Late yesterday afternoon I put my A-frame back up. When I first put it up a few weeks ago, it was in a low position for training Midge and Fern and the bloody sheep tried to climb it and broke the chains holding it in place. I fixed the chains and put it up in its full height so the sheep won’t be tempted to climb it. After it was up, I sent Gel over it and Midge followed him! Good for her. I then sent Midge up over it a few times on her own. She’s so happy to do whatever I ask of her.

I got an unexpected update about the puppies in Canada. They are both doing wonderfully! I was so glad to hear about them.

Work got busy so I don’t have as much free time during the day to write. I’m glad we are busy again, I hate it when it’s slow. I even had to work over the weekend, which is a good thing because I get paid overtime. Bet you can’t guess where the extra money is going to go.

On the way into work this morning I was thinking of the trial this weekend with enthusiasm. This is a good thing! I was rarely excited about going to USBCHA herding trials. I worried and obsessed over them. When I think of USBCHA herding trials now it is almost with revulsion. That’s sad, but I should not look back on my failures.

I do plan to attend an ASCA (the Australian Shepherd Club of America) stock trial in February. These are arena-type trials, which may end up being a fiasco with Gel, we’ll see. These trials usually offer all three types of stock (cattle, sheep and ducks). You have to start out in their Started (beginner) class and if you get both legs in Started, you move up to Open and then to Advanced. Once you get both Advanced legs, you earn the title “WTCH” which I’d very much like. I need to pick the brains of someone experienced with ASCA trials beforehand so I know what I’m getting into. February is a long time off. There is always the chance the trial will be cancelled due to drought conditions. There have been some trials cancelled recently in the south for that very reason. People are selling off their livestock because they can’t afford to feed them. It’s a sad situation.

This morning I was out walking with Fern just as it was getting light. There was a light frost on the grass so with the low light, most of the landscape was light grey in color. Some of the bushes out in the field were darker in color and to the eye of a puppy (and even my eye) they could have been evil gremlins lying in wait for tasty puppies to walk by.

I watched Fern as she kept an eye on the possible gremlins. I know some puppies would have reacted by charging out into the field barking with hackles raised. Not Fern. She was alert, but she didn’t react. Should something have moved out in the field, it might have been different.

So far she hasn’t shown any interest in the sheep and in fact, if they come near her, she retreats to a safe distance away. I am not concerned about that. In my opinion, little puppies should have enough sensibility to know that compared to a sheep, they are very small creatures who could easily be injured if they get too close.

My ducks used to come up from the pond every night and go back down in the morning after I let them out of their pen. All of a sudden, they stopped coming up. I believe they went wild. This weekend I plan to go to the local flea market and hope to purchase a couple of female ducks to put in the duck pen. The strange quacking of the new ducks will hopefully lure my ducks out of the pond so I can corral them and keep them up. I hate to take them away from the pond, but if they continue to stay out at night, I am going to loose them to predators. Once the ducks are up and I clip their wings so they can’t fly, I play to bring Fern in to see if she’ll show any interest in working them. They are more her size.